麻豆果冻传媒

First time hospital has transplanted five patients in such a short period of time

For Release: May 22, 2013

Palo Alto, Calif. - For the transplant teams at Lucile Packard Children鈥檚 Hospital Stanford, it was a busy day. Really busy. Like, record-setting busy.

In a whirlwind of care team heroics, Packard Children鈥檚 performed five organ transplants within 24 hours starting Monday, April 22. 鈥淲e鈥檝e done four in a day before, but never five,鈥� said Louise Furukawa, MD, anesthesia resource coordinator. Transplants happen with little notice once donor organs become available, so Furukawa and Echo Rowe, MD, had huge roles quickly coordinating operating rooms, assigning staff, moving cases around and more. 鈥淭hanks to our team鈥檚 skill and experience, everyone knew where to be and what to do in order to be ready for an epic day.

Now, at the one-month anniversary, doctors have announced that all the surgeries were a success and that the patients are recovering well. 鈥淲e won鈥檛 forget this experience,鈥� said transplantation chief Carlos Esquivel, MD, who鈥檚 been transplanting organs for 25 years. 鈥淚t took quick planning and incredible teamwork by surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and care teams throughout the hospital.鈥�

Transplant timeline, beginning April 22:

• 5:08 a.m. Monday:聽Esquivel leads surgery to split the liver of a deceased organ donor so that it can be given to two recipients. In the meantime, Marc Melcher, MD, is removing the diseased liver of a 2-year-old boy. Soon after, Esquivel implants one portion of the split liver into the toddler.
• 5:18 a.m. 聽Monday:聽Waldo Concepcion, MD, begins the transplant of the other portion of the聽split liver into a 15-year-old girl.
• 1:55 p.m. Monday:聽Olaf Reinhartz, MD, starts heart transplant surgery for a 3-year-old boy.
• 1:17 a.m. Tuesday:聽Concepcion is back in surgery, this time transplanting a kidney into a聽15-year-old boy.
• 1:27 a.m. Tuesday:聽Amy Gallo, MD, begins a kidney transplant for a 14-year-old girl.

(Several hours prior to each transplant, surgery teams from Packard聽Children鈥檚 traveled to other hospitals to procure the donor organs.)

It was certainly an unprecedented 24 hours for Packard Children鈥檚, home to the largest pediatric solid organ transplant program in America, including:

• A liver transplant program that is #1 in outcomes nationally.
• A kidney transplant program ranked #1 by the United Network for Organ Sharing.
• The only pediatric heart transplant program in the Bay Area, one ranked in the nation鈥檚 top 10.

鈥淭his was the ultimate demonstration of the passion we have for healing children through transplant,鈥� said Concepcion, who once led five kidney transplants in two days. 鈥淐are teams throughout the hospital immediately got into it. Experience matters, and they all put in lots of extra hours in order to ensure everything would go smoothly.鈥� Concepcion also noted that other surgeons postponed scheduled cases to make room for the transplants. 鈥淚t was impressive but not surprising,鈥� he said. 鈥淓veryone was thrilled to see so many transplants save so many lives in such a short period of time.鈥�

Of course, the gift of organ donation keeps on giving. That鈥檚 why the next day (April 23), while intensive care specialists were busy managing the patients鈥� post-transplant recovery, surgeon Reinhartz was back at it. At 3 p.m., he returned to the hospital鈥檚 Ford Family Surgery Center to lead the transplant of a donor heart to save the life of a baby. That meant six transplants in 36 hours. Perhaps another record?

Authors

Robert Dicks
650-497-8364
rdicks@stanfordchildrens.org